{"id":868725,"date":"2026-10-02T22:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T22:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/868725\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T22:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T22:22:10","slug":"ukraine-0-3-northern-ireland-brown-scores-two-as-superb-northern-ireland-stun-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/868725\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine 0-3 Northern Ireland: Brown scores two as superb Northern Ireland stun Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the fixture drew recollections and memories of the Euro 2016 finals for fans and the media as the sides met competitively for the first time in 10 years, O’Neill was adamant that his focus was on the future<\/a> and the new generation of players writing their own history.<\/p>\n

That was reflected in his selection as he handed 19-year-old winger Morrison his first competitive start, while the average age of the starting team was just 22 – the youngest for Northern Ireland on record since World War Two.<\/p>\n

It was fitting for Brown, the oldest player in the starting XI at 28, to find the opener with his first international goal in the ninth minute.<\/p>\n

The Oxford United defender, who has been quietly superb in this international window, managed to poke the ball home off the upright from McConville’s knockdown.<\/p>\n

Morrison, on loan at Sheffield Wednesday from Liverpool, rewarded O’Neill’s faith and was key to the second goal, as he carried the ball forward and played in the cross which allowed Price to score his first goal in more than a year. <\/p>\n

But the night belonged to Brown, whose second goal was the slice of luck that had so often avoided Northern Ireland in recent years. <\/p>\n

Credit had to go to defensive partner McConville, again superb in defence, who had the chance to smash home his first international goal on the line but he left it for Brown to take the plaudits.<\/p>\n

In an convenient nod to Euro 2016, Josh Magennis and Paddy McNair – the only two remaining players from the famous win – came off the bench to see the game out, while 18-year-old Ceadach O’Neill came on for a fourth cap which tied him down to Northern Ireland amid pre-window speculation about his international future.<\/p>\n

Sweden and France were the only teams to beat Ukraine in the past 12 months but they had no answer to MIchael O’Neill’s side, who were the better team from the first whistle in Trnava.<\/p>\n

The win is also NI’s biggest away victory since a 4-1 win in Lithuania in September 2021 and marks a third consecutive clean sheet in the campaign.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland will now have the opportunity to go through the international break unbeaten when they host Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s Georgia, who lost 1-0 in Hungary, in Belfast on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the fixture drew recollections and memories of the Euro 2016 finals for fans and the media as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-868725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}